The following article was printed in the Providence Journal on Thursday, November 19, 1998.
This article discusses the merits of the Black and Latino Greek system.   It is a great resource for those not familiar with these organizations, or their philosophies.  Included in this article is an interview with Hermano Kenneth Lynch, who talks about the multi-cultural aspect of La Unidad Latina.  Also, there are some La Unidad Latina's process and statistics about membership.
 
THE PULSE
These Greek groups cater to minority cultures
By Soljane Martinez
Staff Writer
 
    Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds showed fraternity and sorority houses as 24-hour parties with kegs, cheerleaders, jocks andmore kegs.
    I remember coming to college thinking I'd never join a sorority.  My life was way too busy to worry about not showering, being humiliated and panty raids. And I never imagined the existance of a sorority that centered on my beliefs and my culture. Greek life on TV and in the movies was usually a very white affair.
    But real life is vastly diverse, and I found a sorority that not only understands my struggles as a Latina, but taught me that calling  someone your sister isn't just something to do while you're at college -  it comes from the heart.
    In fact, fraternities and sororities catering to the culture and needs of students of color are on campuses everywhere, including here in Rhode Island.
 
The grip of brotherhood
 
    It's a Saturday night and Brown University's Alumnae Hall is reverberating with bass and treble. Inside, a barrage of men greet each other with a hug that conceals a secret handshake. They may      have never met each other before, but if they know the "grip," they are brothers.
   The chants they shout, overpowering the music, show their solidarity and their love for their fraternities, which are sponsoring the party.
   There are women at this party, too.  Concita L. Bohaner, a 21-year-old Jersey City native and      engineering senior at Brown, pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority last spring.
   Although she was new to the organization, a soror (sister) she'd never met housed her over the summer while she interned in Michigan. The fact that they are sorors immediately connected them.
   "I don't have any sisters, so the sisterhood aspect was very much a part of it," Bohaner said of her decision to pledge. "And if you have a passion for changing things, your best bet is to work in a group."
   Amidst the DJ's tunes, sounds are heard. From one side of the room, men amplify their chants, hands around their lips; from the other side the women "call out" and all their sisters respond, letting them know they are here, they are a united front. Wherever they are in that room, that special call, whose significance is known only to members, alerts them to the rest of their sisters.
   All around the room, lines of fraternity brothers and sorority sisters dance in unison, stepping, strolling, showing off their unity - how they are all in synch, both physically and mentally. This they learned when they pledged.
 
Discipline and focus
 
   Director Spike Lee's 1988 movie School Daze introduced many people to the concept of black Greeks. Lee (Half-Pint) spoofs the black Greek system by pledging a fraternity that makes him wear a jumpsuit and walk attached to his fellow pledges with a dog chain.
  While Lee greatly exaggerated the black Greek pledge process, there is some truth to his comic cinematic portrayal. Traditionally, the pledge process for black Greeks entails a lot of discipline and focus, much like the military.
   According to Ndiya Nkongho, a 21-year-old Brown senior and sister of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, until 1989, pledging one of the eight black fraternal organizations that composed the National Pan-Hellenic Council included wearing uniforms and walking in a line formation.
   Then things changed. People thought the system amounted to hazing, she says, and the groups began to get bad publicity. So the uniforms and public displays were eliminated, and the process     became much more low-key. "We wanted to eliminate any negative influences," Nkongho said. "We felt we should focus exclusively on the positive learning experiences."
   Black Greeks date back to 1906 (see accompanying story). Within the past 25 years, Latino fraternities and sororities have emerged at campuses around the country as well. Like black            students, Latinos saw the need for organizations that understood their roots, traditions and needs while away at college.
   Many Latino Greek organizations modeled their pledging processes on those of black Greeks because of the struggles both cultures share. Some Latino Greeks still use uniforms and line            formations as part of their process.
   Latino Greek pledges are also on social probation - they may only speak to others in a classroom or work environment, and with family. Social events or chatting with friends on campus are out of the question.
   Sometimes, at night, you can hear the singing and chanting voices of pledges of the Latino fraternity and sorority bouncing off the ivy-covered buildings at Brown.
   Carol Guzman, a 24-year-old Brown senior from Central Falls, is in charge of one of these pledge classes this semester and sees first-hand how people react to them.
   "People don't understand that pledging composes an internal and external process," Guzman said.
   "And externally people only see the uniforms, the braids and that they don't socialize, but internally the frame of mind is different. You're learning about yourself, taking out those external things that take up extra time and allowing yourself to refocus your life and goals.
    "You realize how much time those little things take up," she said.
    "It's a relief not to worry about clothes"

     The educational studies major says some people use their puzzlement as a license to offend.
     "Just because they (pledges) can't talk doesn't mean they can't hear," Guzman said. "People say offensive things like they don't have  minds of their own, but you can say the same for people who have tons of piercings and look alike."
      Guzman denied that the process amounts to hazing, as some argue.
    "We are aware that they're doing things out of the norm," she says, "but they can exercise their right to say no, and are told this from Day One."
     Were it not for Alina Ocasio and two other women in 1991, Guzman's and my Latina sorority, Sigma Lambda Upsilon/ Senoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, may never have reached the Ocean State.
      "It was important for me to leave something behind, a presence at Brown," said Ocasio, a 26-year-old program manager at the Rhode Island Development Corporation's Human Resources Investment Council. "I struggled to find that one thing that encompassed my culture, my goals and ideals."
        Five years after graduating as one of Brown's first five Latina women with an engineering degree, she serves on the sorority's national board as vice president of external affairs .
      "In meeting other Latino Greeks, I've seen how "Latino Greekdom' has brought us to a new level," said Ocasio. "It's given us the voice we don't have on our campuses."
 
Filling a void
 
        For many Latino students, college is their first experience away from home, and they are the first in their families to attend college. This was true for me. The sudden relocation from the Big Apple to Li'l Rhody left me with a void. It's not as though I could have walked into my dorm room at URI and been welcomed with the soothing sounds of my native Spanish or the titillating smells of Puerto Rico's rich dishes.
         It's difficult being away from the strong upbringing of family. Many Latinos who pledge a Greek organization do so to surround themselves with a network of people they love and trust - like family, like home.
          To some, like my hermana (sister) Sandra I. Rodriguez, the sorority is her family.                 Rodriguez, a 25-year-old Puerto Rico native, didn't grow up in a stable family environment. "I went from one side of my family to the other side," she says. "I never had something constant. I wanted     something that would be hasta la muerte (until death), that would be there forever."
         She pledged SLU alongside seven women in 1993, as a sophomore at URI.
        "I thought about joining the sorority for many reasons," says Rodriguez, now a registered nurse. "But the main one was that I needed to feel close to someone and know that that individual was       going to care about me."
        And that's what she feels now with her hermanas.
        "I love each and every one of them and I would do anything for them, and in return I know they would do the same," she says.
       "People don't get that every day, not even from their own families. Even if you are a little silly or say something that's not so smart sometimes, those are the quirks of life and they accept you for that."
         Nkongho, a psychology and religious studies major, joined her sorority in 1996 for a different reason - the members' commitment to community service.
       "They really did seem like women with high morals and ethical standards. They were just on point, and (their being sisters) wasn't necessarily the first thing I knew about them either."
        Nkongho was recently elected the national sorority's undergraduate member-at-large, in charge of designing, developing and coordinating a community service initiative for the 340          undergraduate chapters of AKA.
 
Multicultural membership
 
        Although the name may suggest otherwise, black and Latino Greek organizations are not strictly for blacks and Latinos. While they focus on the history and traditions of these cultures, membership - like that of many families - is multicultural.
        I've got hermanas ranging from Jewish and African-American to Filipino, to Brazilian and Korean. They're women who genuinely wanted to learn about my culture and embraced it with open arms, learning about themselves in the process.
        "A lot of the struggles we go through as Latinos are the same as blacks, Asians and other minorities - things like poverty, affirmative action and education," says Ocasio. "There's a lot of correlation with other communities of color."
         The members who aren't minorities say they, too, feel a correlation.
         Kenneth A. Lynch Jr., a Cranston native, is white and says he got flak for pledging a Latino fraternity at URI, where there is an extensive white Greek system.
          Lynch, 21, pledged La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity Inc., in 1995, as a freshman. "I felt that the Latino Greek organization focused more on the community. "I did" face criticism says Lynch, a senior studying nursing. "It was mostly questions because of the uniform process - it's not something the white Greeks do. I didn't think I could do it at first, but I looked at it as a challenge."
          So why did an Italo-Irishman from Cranston pledge a Latino fraternity?
         "I was really familiar with the Latino culture from going to public schools and growing up in Providence," he said. "I thought the Latino culture could better meet my needs as opposed to the other organizations I looked at."
          Of URI's 741 black and Latino undergraduates,  10 - 1.3 percent- are currently members of Sigma Lambda Upsilon or Lambda Upsilon Lambda. That's a much lower percentage than the general campus Greek population; approximately 1,330, or 11 percent of
            URI's 12,000 students, are members of the traditional Greek system. The percentage of membership in the black and Latino groups is low at Brown, too. Of Brown's 717 black and Latino  undergraduates, just 21 - 2.9 percent - belong to black and Latino fraternities and sororities, according to Susan Quagliaroli, associate registrar for systems support. (Brown does not appear to keep a record of membership in traditional fraternities and sororities.)
           Why are the numbers so low?
           "It takes a lot of time and commitment, and it's not for everyone,"  says Brown's Ocasio. "Even though there are 717 (black and Latino) undergraduates on campus, many may be international and have never experienced Greek life, and may never want to."
 
More than a house and letters
 
            But for those who join, it's a lasting experience. Unlike the stereotypical television portrayal of Greek houses, many ethnic-based fraternities and sororities don't have houses, and it's not important to the members whether they do. To minority Greeks, the Greek experience is much more than a house and letters, and it goes way beyond the college years. For instance, once a week, after a hectic workday, eight of us meet as the Providence Alumnae Council of SLU, to continue our        devotion not only to the sorority, but to the community.
           Amongst us there's a dental hygienist, a landscape architect and a bankruptcy court case worker  who meet to organize and participate in bone- marrow donation, free community health fairs, discussion groups with successful Latinas and even mentoring first-year women at URI.
           Like all Greeks, we don't want to be known for parties, but rather for the events and services we offer our communities. For black and Latino Greeks, our mission is to increase the number of minorities that attend college and give them a voice. SLU and LUL require their pledges to study each night alongside a sister or brother in charge of overseeing their academics throughout the process.
             Heather L. Ortiz, 21, of Brooklyn, is currently in charge of academics for SLU's pledges. The political science senior at Brown spends at least seven hours a night at the library with them.
            "It's good to have a peer that is going through the same things as you are," Ortiz said. "It's like a study group, and it helps.
            "It's leading by example. If I'm lackadaisical about my studies, then what I say will just be lip service to them. 
            "Pledging," she said assuredly, "is difficult, but it can be done."